Bike fatalities jump this year

DES MOINES — Robert Philips planned to ride RAGBRAI this week with his daughter.

But the 69-year-old Nashua man was killed last month while riding his bicycle — training for the cross-state ride — when he was hit by a truck, according to authorities.

This past Tuesday, Coe College professor Daniel A. Lehn, 58, of North Liberty was struck by a truck and died while riding his recumbent bike along Highway 965 in Johnson County.

The deaths of Philips and Lehn are part of a spike in bicycle crash fatalities this year in Iowa — already there are more than any year since 2010.

Avid riders are concerned, searching for answers and hoping for action.

'It's definitely disturbing,' said Eric Penning, president of Cedar Valley Cyclists. 'We think about it all the time, no matter if the ratios are up or down.

'It's something that definitely needs to be addressed.'

Already this year six bicyclists have died in crashes in Iowa, according to the state Department of Transportation. The Iowa Bicycle Coalition has counted eight bicyclist fatalities.

A DOT spokeswoman said its figures may not be as high as the coalition's because the department does not track deaths on bike trails, only roadways.

Either way, both figures are the most since eight bicyclists died in 2010. From 2011 to 2015, neither group recorded more than five deaths in a single year.

'We're alarmed,' said Mark Wyatt, executive director of the coalition. 'And we don't want to take for granted that we can just wait and see it decline. We want to take action, and we want the Iowa government to work together to find solutions and to take action to reduce that number.'

Cyclists and state officials said the possible reasons for this year's spike are many — uneducated motorists, or an increase in bicyclists and vehicles on the roads, creating more opportunities for accidents.

But most agreed on one issue: distracted drivers.

As mobile phone technology has improved, more drivers are using their phones while driving, law enforcement officials say. That has created a safety issue on the roads, those law enforcement officials note, and cyclists say it creates an added danger for them.

The number of crashes caused by distracted driving increased 43 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to state figures.

Pat Hoye, chief of the governor's Traffic Safety Bureau in the state Department of Public Safety, said at least two of this year's fatalities involved distracted or impaired motorists.

'While bicycles are out there in traffic with impaired drivers and distracted drivers, those are going to lead to higher fatalities for those bicyclists,' Hoye said. 'If we can begin to address lots of different issues that are causing issues in our state, then all of those numbers will come down, including bicycling fatalities.'

Wyatt's group has started an online petition imploring state officials to take action to end fatal bike crashes. The petition, which has more than 4,000 signatures, calls on top state lawmakers and top officials at the state transportation and public safety departments to work together to improve bicycle safety.

The petition calls for a law requiring vehicles pass bicycles at a safe distance, increased penalties for reckless and distracted driving, and stronger enforcement of laws that aim to prevent crashes.

Changing lanes

Iowa is one of just 10 states without a law that addresses passing a bicyclist.

Legislation introduced during the 2016 session would have required motor vehicles to move into an adjacent lane when passing a bicycle, but the bill did not gain sufficient support from lawmakers to pass.

'If you decide you're going to pass a bicyclist, you should change lanes if you're going to pass, just as if you're going to pass another vehicle,' Wyatt said.

Jim Hudson is president of the Quad Cities Bicycle Club and a retired police officer. He said he thinks better education on the rules of the road and fewer distracted drivers would help reduce the number of bicycle crash fatalities.

'The main two things are people need to be better educated about the fact that bicycles are legally allowed to be on the road,' Hudson said. 'And the most important thing is people have to pay attention when they're behind the wheel.'

Hudson and the Cedar Valley Cyclists's Penning said their groups stress safety education with their riders, and Wyatt of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition said biking still is a relatively safe venture. That's especially true in Iowa, which ranks 36th in the country for bicycle fatalities per million population, according to federal statistics.

But cyclists also want this year's spike in fatalities to reverse.

'Bicycling still is incredibly safe compared to other modes of transportation, so we don't want to scare people away from bicycling,' Wyatt said. 'But when bad things happen, they are tragedies. They are devastating.'